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Al-Khazini
Abd al-Rahman al-Khazini ( ) (flourished 1115–1130) was a scientist, astronomer, physicist, biologist, alchemist, mathematician and philosopher from Merv, then in the Khorasan province of Persia but now in Turkmenistan, who made important contributions to physics and astronomy.Abd Al-Rahman Al-Khazini, Science and Its Times (2006). Thomson Gale. He is considered the greatest scholar from Merv.Zaimeche, p. 5. Robert E. Hall wrote the following on al-Khazini: Overview Abu al-Fath Abd al-Rahman Mansour al-Khāzini or simply Abu al-Fath Khāzini ( , ) (flourished 1115–1130) was a Muslim astronomer of Greek ethnicity from Merv, then in the Khorasan province of Persia (located in today's Turkmenistan). Merv was known for its literary and scientific achievements. Biography Al-Khazini was a Byzantine GreekKennedy, Islamic Astronomical Tables, p. 7. slave of the Seljuq Turks, who at a young age was taken to Merv after the Seljuq victory over the Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV.Klotz, "Multicultural Perspectives in Science Education: One Prescription for Failure". His master, al-Khazin, gave him the best possible education in mathematical and philosophical subjects. Al-Khazini was also a pupil of the famous Persian poet, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher Omar Khayyám (1048-1131), who was living in Merv at the time.Rosenfeld, p. 686-688. Al-Khazini later became a mathematical practitioner under the patronage of the Seljuk court, under Sultan Ahmed Sanjar. Little else is known about his life, but it is known that he refused rewards and handed back 1000 dinars sent to him by the wife of an Emir, and that he usually lived on 3 dinars a year. Life Al-Khazini was a slave in Marw. He was the pupil of Umar Khayyám. He got his name from his master al-Khanzin. His master is responsible for his education in mathematics and philosophy. Al-Khazini was known for being a humble man. He refused thousands of Dinar for his works, saying he did not need much to live on because it was only his cat and himself in his household. Al-Khazini is one of the few Islamic astronomers to be known for doing original observations. His works are used and very well known in the Islamic world, but very few other places around the world acknowledge his work. Achievements Al Khazini seems to have been a high government official under Sanjar ibn Malikshah and the sultan of the Seljuk Empire. He did most of his work in Merv, where they are known for their libraries. His best-known works are “The Book of the Balance of Wisdom”, “Treatise on Astronomical Wisdom”, and “The Astronomical Table for Sanjar”. “The Book of the Balance of Wisdom” is an encyclopedia of medieval mechanics and hydrostatics composed of eight books with fifty chapters. It is a study of the hydrostatic balance and the ideas behind statics and hydrostatics, it also covers other unrelated topics. There are four different manuscripts of “The Book of the Balance of Wisdom” that have survived. The balance al-Khazini built for Sanjar’s treasury was modeled after the balance al-Asfizari, who was a generation older than al-Khazini, built. Sanjar’s treasurer out of fear destroyed al-Asfizari’s balance; he was filled with grief when he heard the news. Al-Khazini called his balance “combined balance” to show honor towards Al-Asfizari. The meaning of the balance was a “balance of true judgment”. The job of this balance was to help the treasury see what metals were precious and which gems were real or fake. In “The Book of the Balance of Wisdom” al-Khazini states many different examples from the Koran ways that his balance fits into religion. When al-Khazini explains the advantages of his balance he says that it “performs the functions of skilled craftsmen”, its benefits are theoretical and practical precision. The "Treatise on Astronomical Wisdom" is a relatively short work. It has seven parts and each part is assigned to a different scientific instrument. The seven instruments include: a triquetrum, a dioptra, a “triangular instrument,” a quadrant, devices involving reflection, an astrolabe, and simple tips for viewing things with the naked eye. The treatise describes each instrument and their uses. “The Astronomical Table for Sanjar” is said to have been composed for Sultan Sanjar, the ruler of Merv and his balance was made for Sanjar’s treasury. The tables in “The Astronomical Table for Sanjar” are tables of holidays, fasts, etc. The tables are said to have the latitudes and longitudes of forty-three different stars, along with their temperatures and magnitudes. It is said that al-Khazini’s observations for this work were probably done in Merv in various observatories with high quality instruments. Works ''Sinjaric Tables'' Included in his astronomical treatise az-Zij as-Sanjarī or Sinjaric Tables, Al-Khazini gave a description of his construction of a 24 hour water clock designed for astronomical purposes, an early example of an astronomical clock, and the positions of 46 stars computed from the date given in the Almagest for the year 500 AH (1115-1116 CE). He also computed tables for the observation of celestial bodies at the latitude of Merv.Sarton, p. 565.Kennedy, Islamic Astronomical Tables, pp. 7, 37-39 Al-Khazini's Zij as-Sanjarī was later translated into Greek by Gregory Choniades in the 13th century and was studied in the Byzantine Empire.David Pingree (1964), "Gregory Chioniades and Palaeologan Astronomy", Dumbarton Oaks Papers 18, p. 135-160. ''The Book of the Balance of Wisdom'' Al-Khazini is better known for his contributions to physics in his treatise The Book of the Balance of Wisdom, completed in 1121, which remained an important part of Islamic physics. The book contains studies of the hydrostatic balance, its construction and uses, and the theories of statics and hydrostatics that lie behind it, as developed by his predecessors, his contemporaries, and himself.Mariam Rozhanskaya, "On a Mathematical Problem in al-Khazini's Book of the Balance of Wisdom", in David A. King and George Saliba, ed., From Deferent to Equant: A Volume of Studies in the History of Science in the Ancient and Medieval Near East in Honor of E. S. Kennedy, Annals of the New York Academy of Science, vol. 500 (1987), p. 427 It also contains descriptions on the instruments of his predecessors, including the araeometer of Pappus and the pycnometer flask of al-Biruni, as well as his own hydrostatic balance and specialized balances and steelyards.Robert E. Hall (1973). "Al-Khazini", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. VII, p. 346. Al-Biruni and al-Khazini were the first to apply experimental scientific methods to the fields of statics and dynamics, particularly for determining specific weights, such as those based on the theory of balances and weighing. He and his Muslim predecessors unified statics and dynamics into the science of mechanics, and they combined the fields of hydrostatics with dynamics to give birth to hydrodynamics. They applied the mathematical theories of ratios and infinitesimal techniques, and introduced algebraic and fine calculation techniques into the field of statics. They were also the first to generalize the theory of the centre of gravity and the first to apply it to three-dimensional bodies. They also founded the theory of the ponderable lever and created the "science of gravity" which was later further developed in medieval Europe. The contributions of al-Khazini and his Muslim predecessors to mechanics laid the foundations for the later development of classical mechanics in Renaissance Europe.Rozhanskaya and Levinova (1996), p. 642: The first of the book's eight chapters deals with his predecessors' theories on the centre of gravity, including Al-Razi (Latinized as Rhazes), Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, and Omar Khayyám. He also draws attention to the failure of the ancient Greeks to clearly differentiate between force, mass, and weight, and he goes on to show awareness of the weight of the air, and of its decrease in density with altitude.Hill, p. 61. (cf. Zaimeche, p. 5.) The strict definition for a specific weight is given by Al-Khazini in The Book of the Balance of Wisdom: After extensive experimentation, Al-Khazini records the specific gravities of fifty substances, including various stones, metals, liquids, salts, amber, and clay. The accuracy of his measures were impressive and comparable to modern values. In another experiment, Al-Khazini discovered that there was greater density of water when nearer to the Earth's centre, which was later proven by Roger Bacon in the 13th century.Max Meyerhof (1931), "Science and Medicine", in Sir T. Arnold and A. Guillaume, Legacy of Islam, p. 342, Oxford University Press. (cf. Zaimeche, p. 7) Al-Khazini defines heaviness in traditional Aristotelian terms as an inherent property of heavy bodies: On the basis that there is denser air when nearer to the centre of the Earth (derived from the Archimedes principle),Marshall Clagett, The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages, (Madison, Univ. of Wisconsin Pr., 1961), pp. 65-68 and that the weight of heavy bodies increase as they are farther from the centre of the Earth (derived from al-Quhi and Alhacen's theories that weight varies with the distance from the centre of the Earth), al-Khazini postulated that the gravity of a body varies with its distance from the centre of the Earth:Professor Mohammed Abattouy (2002), "The Arabic Science of weights: A Report on an Ongoing Research Project", The Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies 4', p. 109-130: }} It appears that what al-Khazini meant by "gravity" ("thiql" in Arabic) is both an idea similar to the modern concept of gravitational potential energy,Rozhanskaya and Levinova (1996), p. 621: and the moment of a force relative to a point (both meanings were derived from al-Quhi and Alhacen).Rozhanskaya and Levinova (1996), p. 622. In either case, al-Khazini appears to have been the first to propose that the gravity of a body varies with its distance from the centre of the Earth.Rozhanskaya and Levinova (1996), p. 622: In his first sense of the word "gravity", the concept was not considered again until the 18th century, following Newton's law of universal gravitation,Rozhanskaya and Levinova (1996), p. 622: Zaimeche, p. 7. but in his second sense of the word, the concept was considered again by Jordanus de Nemore in the 13th century. N. Khanikoff, an early translator and commentator of al-Khazini's work, summarized his ideas regarding gravity as follows: ''Treatise on Instruments'' His Risala fi'l-alat (Treatise on Instruments) has seven parts describing different scientific instruments: the triquetrum, dioptra, a triangular instrument he invented, the quadrant and sextant, the astrolabe, and original instruments involving reflection.Robert E. Hall (1973). "Al-Biruni", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. VII, p. 338. Alchemy and biology Al-Khazini wrote the following on evolution in alchemy and biology, comparing the transmutation of elements with the transmutation of species, and how they were perceived by natural philosophers and common laymen in the medieval Islamic world at the time: See also *Islamic science *Islamic astronomy *Islamic Golden Age *Muslim inventions *Zij Notes References *Robert E. Hall (1973). "Al-Khazini", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. VII, p. 335-351* *Donald Routledge Hill (1993). Islamic Science and Engineering. Edinburgh University Press. *E. S. Kennedy (1956). "A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 46 (2), Philadelphia. *Irving M. Klotz (1993). "Multicultural Perspectives in Science Education: One Prescription for Failure", Phi Delta Kappan 75. *Mariam Rozhanskaya and I. S. Levinova (1996), "Statics", in Roshdi Rashed, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Vol. 2, p. 614-642. Routledge, London and New York. *Boris Rosenfeld (1994), "Abu'l-Fath Abd al-Rahman al-Khazini (XII Century) by Mariam Mikhailovna Rozhanskaya", Isis 85 (4), p. 686-688. *George Sarton (1927), Introduction to the History of Science, Vol. I, The Carnegie Institution, Washington. *Salah Zaimeche PhD (2005). Merv, Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization. Category:12th-century mathematicians Category:Islamic astronomy Category:Islamic mathematics Category:Muslim philosophers Category:Arab astronomers Category:Arab mathematicians Category:Byzantine philosophers Category:Byzantine scientists Category:Medieval astronomers Category:Slaves of the Muslim world Category:Turkish slaves Category:12th century in science